This invention relates to systems for shipping and delivery of parcels and like items to and from residential and business areas, in particular to systems suitable for e-commerce.
Today, delivery of parcels to individual recipients is performed by state-run Post Office service and by numerous private courier agencies like DHL, In-Time, Royal Mail, United Parcels Service, FedEx, etc. Also, large commercial store chains maintain courier deliveries of their own.
A typical routine for a sender to send a parcel from post-office A to a recipient located near post-office B involves:                the sender visiting post office A and submitting a parcel and the recipient's identification data and geographical address;        the post office A shipping the parcel and necessary data to the post office B, usually through 2 or more hubs concentrating the flow of parcels, and using services of land/sea/air shipping companies;        the post office B delivering the parcel to the recipient by either a post person to the recipient's door, or more often notifying the recipient by mail or phone, and the recipient visiting the post office B to pick up the parcel.        
Upon the delivery of the parcel, the post office B checks the identity of the recipient against the data accompanying the parcel, and, in some cases, effects a payment from the recipient.
A typical routine with a courier agency differs from the above in that couriers usually visit both the sender, upon his order, to pick up the parcel, and the recipient, to deliver the parcel. A typical routine with a commodity bought on-line may differ in that the sender, being also a trade company, may prepare parcels and recipients' data at its own premises or run a courier service of its own.
Notably, the acts of submitting and delivering a parcel in known delivery systems take place in the working hours of post offices or courier agencies and are performed by their human personnel. With the electronic commerce via Internet becoming more and more popular, the flow of parcels to individual recipients snowballs, since an ever increasing proportion of purchasing is now being made online. The flood of parcels challenges the existing systems of delivery to individual customers, also called Last Mile systems.
There are recent attempts to tap the flow of parcels in a system of delivery which is closer to the consumer and is more convenient. Thus, zBox company in the USA (http://www.zbox.com) offers a Last Mile solution in the form of a large mailbox (zBox) made of durable plastic at the doorstep of the house. The zBox is a “smart” and secure home delivery box. The zBox is used to receive packages when shopping online or from catalogs, without attending or negotiating a meeting with delivery personnel. Also, packages can be left in the zBox for pick-up when one needs to return or send an item. The zBox is equipped with a 24-hour touch keypad and a proprietary access system that generates a new access code for each package delivery. To access the zBox, a single personal identification number or PIN has to be remembered.
A similar system is the Brivo Smart Delivery system in the USA (http://www.brivo.com). It utilizes the Web and wireless technology to remotely manage shipments. With Brivo, companies, mobile professionals and consumers can receive packages without attendance and waiting. Brivo uses steel cubic delivery boxes, attached to homes, and wired with an Internet connection. The outside of the Brivo Box has a keypad on which delivery personnel can enter a code that opens the box. The box can then notify the owner through voice-mail, email or pager that a package has been received, and store a record of the delivery. The Brivo Box design is based on U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,053. This patent discloses also an embodiment of the invention including a plurality of storage devices grouped in clusters in a common area of a housing subdivision or an apartment complex, similar to the way mailboxes are grouped in some residential areas. The keypad and controller of each of the communication apparatuses attached to such a cluster would be configured to allow access to any predetermined storage device in the cluster and would direct the vendor, homeowner, or apartment dweller to use whichever storage device is currently empty. The communication apparatuses would then notify the homeowner or apartment dweller to which enclosure the delivery was made.